It's big, green and potentially life saving.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A 37-metre-tall mobile phone black spot tower at Summer Hill Creek has been launched after a call from residents and emergency services.
It will provide mobile coverage to the hills above the Ophir campsite area, cover 70 square kilometres including 12 kilometres along Ophir Road and give coverage to 60 homes in the area, many of which did not have any before.
Member for Calare Andrew Gee said getting a mobile tower in the area had been a priority for emergency services.
"The community concern around this area has been going on for two or three years now," he said.
It's going to make life easier for our emergency services personnel.
- Andrew Gee, Member for Calare
"We had some examples over the last few years of bushwalkers and campers being lost in the area and the call from emergency services to improve the coverage out here, particularly from the Rural Fire Service, has been very strong.
"It's going to make life easier for our emergency services personnel. They will be able to communicate with each other to a much larger extent than they have been able to, for example when people get lost out here, and also for bushfires.
"It is very rugged country out here, it's very hilly country."
He said farmers fed up with break-ins could now set up security systems while campers at Ophir would have an outside connection.
"This tower will take coverage out to the Ophir campground. It doesn't go into every single valley, but certainly on the hills around that campground you will have coverage," he said.
"If someone does get into trouble it will be a simple case of walking up the hill or driving up the hill and they will have coverage."
Mr Gee said 37 base stations had been built in the Calare electorate, out of 1047 across Australia.
Optus' Central West general manager Tom O'Dea said it would be a boon to the area. "There's a lot of residents in the area that had no access to a mobile network," he said.
Mr O'Dea said Optus would build six more towers in the Central West, including one near the Cadia mine.
DO YOU WANT MORE ORANGE NEWS?
- Receive our free newsletters delivered to your inbox, as well as breaking news alerts. Sign up below ...